Which is worse? A California district makes a tough choice between No Child Left Behind and Obama education policies
SANGER, California – At a table strewn with papers, four eighth-grade boys with gelled hair and flashy sneakers comb through lyrics, discussing everything from girls to grammar. Only one remains silent, nodding lazily.
When they reach the line, “You were my pills, you were my thrills,” the unofficial leader shouts: “That’s a metaphor!” He asks the silent one what he thinks.
Sixth-graders in Chuck Yeh’s classroom at Fairmont School share their thoughts during a group work session. (Photo: Chuck Yeh)
Suddenly, the quiet boy comes to life, offering his opinion in Lisa Johnson’s English Language Arts class at Sanger Unified School District’s Fairmont School, where clusters of four to six students meet often to talk about test scores and work through lessons. This is collaboration in action: Teachers place students by ability and temperament, balancing outspoken kids with shy types and stronger students with strugglers. Teachers work the same way with each other, sharing ideas and teaching classes as a team.
But morale used to be so low in Sanger Unified that a sign reading “Welcome to the home of 400 unhappy teachers” lined a highway in this central California region dotted with rolling ranches and dusty farms. The sign went up in 1999. In 2004, the state ruled that the rural area was one of its worst performing districts.
By 2012, though, things had changed for the better: Sanger Unified ranked third in achievement gains among California districts with high populations of minority, English language learners and